What to expect
Before you can drive on your own you sit two DVSA tests: the theory test, taken on a computer at a test centre, and then the practical test, taken in the car. This page goes through both in the order you'll meet them, with the actual numbers — how many questions, how long you get, and what counts as a pass — so nothing on the day is a surprise.
Theory help is part of your lessons with us, and the driving is built around the roads near your test centre. We get you ready for both.
A junction like this is where most of the test is decided: looking, waiting, going when it's right.
The theory test
The theory test is done on a computer at a theory test centre. It has two parts, taken one after the other in the same sitting, and you need to pass both. You're given your result at the centre before you leave.
Fifty questions on screen, each with a choice of answers, covering the Highway Code, road signs and safe driving. You have 57 minutes, which is more time than most people need.
You watch 14 short video clips filmed from a driver's view and click as soon as you see a hazard developing. The earlier you spot it, the higher you score, up to five points for each hazard. One of the clips has two. Once a clip has played you can't go back to it, so this part rewards practice.
Mock theory tests and hazard perception practice are included in your lessons at no extra cost. If a type of question keeps catching you out, we go through it in the car until it doesn't.
Ask about free theory helpThe practical test
The practical test starts and finishes at your test centre, with a DVSA examiner in the passenger seat where your instructor normally sits. You take it in the car you've learnt in, on roads we'll have driven together many times. Here is what happens, step by step.
Before you drive, the examiner asks you to read a number plate from 20 metres away. If you need glasses or lenses to drive, wear them — the test can't go ahead if you can't read it.
Two vehicle safety questions. The 'tell me' question comes before you set off: you explain how you'd carry out a check on the car. The 'show me' question comes while you're driving: you show how you'd use one of the car's controls on the move.
Around 40 minutes on the roads near the test centre. Expect junctions, roundabouts and the ordinary traffic of a Birmingham weekday. You may also be asked to carry out an emergency stop.
You'll be asked to do one of three: parallel park at the side of the road, park in a bay, or pull up on the right-hand side of the road, reverse, and rejoin the traffic. We practise all three, because you won't know which one until you're asked.
For part of the drive you're given no turn-by-turn directions. Instead you follow either a sat nav the examiner sets up or the road signs. How safely you drive matters far more than whether you take the route exactly as intended.
Minor faults are noted as you go. You can pick up as many as 15 and still pass. One serious or dangerous fault is a fail, however well the rest of the drive went.
Back at the centre, the examiner tells you straight away whether you've passed and talks you through the sheet. You don't wait for a letter, and you don't wait for a phone call.
The roads around your test centre are the roads we practise on. If you'd like to talk through any part of the test before booking, call us.
How we get you ready
The theory and the driving get learnt together, in the same car, from the same person. Here is what that looks like in practice.
Theory
Mock theory tests and hazard perception practice are part of your lessons, at no extra charge. We go over the questions you keep getting wrong until they stick, and we talk through hazards as they appear on the road in front of you.
Routes
Lessons run on the routes around your test centre, so the roundabouts, junctions and awkward turnings you meet on the day are ones you've driven many times, in traffic and out of it.
Teaching
It's just you and your instructor in the car. Nobody else is waiting for their turn, and the pace is set by how you're getting on, whether that means repeating a manoeuvre or moving on to something new.
The car
You learn in a manual Toyota Auris fitted with dual controls, so your instructor can brake from the passenger seat if it's ever needed. That's what lets you try things properly instead of hovering over the pedals.
Straight on
Call us to talk through where you're starting from, or send your details through the booking form and we'll get back to you. Either way, the first lesson is a gentle one.
We teach across Birmingham, every day of the week.